AWAL

I picked up the phone - shaking in extreme coldness of the surrounding despite the red eyes, the dry lips and the thirst that's swelling in my body. At the other end of the line, came a voice which I found comfort within it. He spoke in a manner that a friend will always do.

I knew him once upon a time l for about two years before he moved back to an east-coast state where he studied there the rest of his 8 years. We lost contact ever since.

He was 'large' and I was bad. I called him 'fat' everyday. Although we were not in the same session but we share the same staircase everyday - him to get to his third floor class and I was waiting in front of the staircase (as I was a prefect at that time) waiting for him to come up those steps and wait for the right moment to blurt out my evil and gruesome hatred towards him. As I saw his clean-shaved head, I started to talk to anyone (YES, anyone even though I have no IDEA who they were) in front of me saying stuff that revolved on the topic of FATNESS full blast volume level - so that he'd hear me saying things that put me in the top list of an evil prefect. Come to think of it I was very evil when I was small. I targeted 'weak' students and took their name over and over again for offenses they didn't do and got away with it. It was scary to look at how evil I was when I was small.

AWAL was somehow a cheerful person. He laughed a lot and never failed to make me laughed too. The most extreme gesture he did in reacting to my name calling activities will be a soft punch on my arms. And less that I realized I kinda like that. He is clingy, low profile and a good friend too. He helped most of his classmates with mathematics problems and he didn't mind sharing what he knows with others. He'll listen to you when you have something to say and always be true to himself. You see, this is all happened 12 years ago when he was in standard 2 and I was in standard 5.

"Bai, ko ok ke tak nie?"

"Ok laa sikit bai,"

"Falliq dah bagi ko makan ubat dah?"

"Blom agy"

"Makan ubat taw babi,"

"ye la2,"

I hanged up the phone.